A blog for information on good indian movies with focus on parallel cinema.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Mirch Masala

Many would have seen it.If not, just see it.It is a classic and a must see.If u have seen it when u were young see it again.It will be very different now.It was, for me.

I only have superlative words to tell about this movie.If we are talking about indian movies made on womens.This is THE movie.It covers everything from educating a girl child to fighting against tyranny.A movie that asks you not to bear things and asks you to stand up and fight against injustice.

-----------------story----Set in a remote village in saurashtra.It tells the story of the villagers , mainly that of sonnubhai(smita patil).The men of the village waste there time doing nothing substantial and take great pride in having mistress.They think that they are avoiding trouble by accepting what ever the subeidhar(Nasrudeen shah) of that region says.

There are various small threads focusing on the various bad things being followed in the village. But the main thread is that of sonnubhai's. She falls in the eyes of the subeidhar and he wanting to have her, chases her. She goes into the chilli powder factory which employs the women of the village.

what follows is a confrontation between the group of women’s and the army.-------------------

-----spoiler-------The movie which starts slowly, building up the story comes to a crashing climax which ends with the women rushing with a war cry holding chilli powder as their weapon. The movie beautifully ends without making it into an usual killing of the villian, that is left to the audience to imagine.------------

Ketan mehta has taken the short story of Chunilal Madia and made it into a movie with an universal appeal. It will appeal not only to us indians but to any group of people suffering from tyranny in the world. Even though the movie is set in a village of pre independent india it holds true for today’s situations also.It laughs at the society that does not want to get involved into problems unless and until it affects their family.

The movie talks about the power of unity in many different places, whether it is the woman in the village protesting against there husband or the womens inside the mill unitedly opposing the soldiers or the men folk who are tied to a pole.It does not give all the glory to one person.It glorifies the group, the righteous people of the village who protest against tyranny. Like deepthi naval beating her windows to let the men folk know their wrong doings.supriya pathak rushing with the chilli powder. The village teacher standing up against the subeidhar and village head. The old watchman standing up to protect the women folks. It is about the unity of the week and the oppressed. It is about standing up against injustice and standing up for what you believe is right.

The movie also tells that you need not have to be strong to oppose injustice by various characters. In the whole village of hindu men, who show there manliness by having a mistress. There is only one man who stands up against the army to protect the dignity of his village women, an old muslim watchman abhu mian(Om puri). A physically weak person of a minority community standing up when the majority fail to do so.An example of the fact that a person's strength lies in his mind not in his body.

The factory is sieged by the army and everybody inside the factory are having there own doubts on whether it is right to take the army head on trying to protect the dignity of one woman. Ironically at that moment one of the pregnant females inside the factory delivers a baby. And it is a girl child.

It is not a typical art movie which plays down on the melodrama part. This is a movie which is pretty much main stream, loaded with dramatics, making it a spicier movie as suggested by the title. But it does not do the usual ending of a blood bath, the audiences are made to take action against the tyrant and end the movie .Just beautiful.

It has some great actors in lead roles Smitha patil, nasrudeen and ompuri. Smitha patil is terrific in the movie.The movie also has a lot of familiar faces doing small roles

Raj babbar comes as smita husbandParesh rawal as a villagerSuresh oberoi as the village head menMohan gokhale as village headmans brotherDina pathak,supriya pathak(daughter of dina pathak and wife of pankaj kapoor), rathna pathak(sister of supriya pathak and wife of nasrudeen )as another villagers who work in the chilli factory

The Movie is written by Shafi Hakim and Ketan Mehta. Music is by rajat dholkia and produced by NDFC.

A wonderful review! I had seen it a long time back and was dumb-struck even then(though all I was concerned before watching the movie was why Naseerudin had to be cast as the villain and why Smita Patil as the heroine!).